A Little about Full Spectrum CBD Oil

I have been thinking about expanding the scope of this blog. Over the last few weeks I have decided to include medicinal herbs and other earth sourced products like essential oils. This is my first posting that reflects my other healing and wellness interest.

I am reposting this terrific piece written by a friend of mine. CBD oil can be controversial, but as this article shows it doesn’t need to be. . .I have tried this oil and can tell you that it has had real benefits in my life.

This piece is reprinted her with permission from Elizabeth. Enjoy!

What Happens When a Pot-Phobic Sober Person tries CBD for Five Days

I was never a good stoner. I did not experience any “high” from smoking marijuana. Instead, I just got paranoid and hungry. Nothing fun about that. So I smoked my last joint in the summer of ’87 and have never gone back to it.

And for years I had some very strong opinions about cannabis. I’ve been clean and sober since I was 21 (almost 30 years now) and the general opinion in the recovery world is that marijuana is a drug (like any other street drug) that can ruin lives. Because of my 12-step conditioning I did not see cannabis as a life-giving elixir or a pathway to creativity. And I certainly didn’t think it could heal the body. In fact, I thought just the opposite was true. Smoking pot causes lung cancer, right?

When pot was legalized in Oregon and people started vaping in line for the cash register at Fred Meyer I was further disgusted. While I have always supported the legalization of pot – because I think outlawing any natural plant is ridiculous – I did not see marijuana as something that could enhance lives.

In fact, I was so turned off by pot that I once asked a tour manager to pass a note to Willie Nelson asking the singer to join my band for a couple of songs after his show. We were playing upstairs as part of an after-show for the legendary performer’s concert in Amsterdam. Even though I had full access to him and really wanted to meet my idol I did not want to stand there marinating in his crew’s pot smoke in order to do it. In other words I was willing to give up a meet and greet with Willie in order to avoid a contact high. “No honey,” drawled his affable road manager. “You’ll have to give him a hug and give it to him yourself.”

So I stood there with tendrils of pot smoke spinning slowly around my head shooting the shit with Willie’s crew until the coolest person on the planet finally came off the stage after five encores. And thank God that I did because a very smiley Willie gave me the promised hug and posed for a photo that I still treasure to this day. And he seemed like he loved every minute of it, probably thanks in no small part to all that pot.

Willie is clearly not one of those people who turns into a paranoid nervous wreck on pot. He’s got the genetic green light to smoke Mary Jane, and he’s very good at it. Despite his habit, he manages to stay fit, jogging miles each week, all while creating musical masterpieces and over-achieving his way to legendary musical stardom. He could not be further from the puffy couch potato teen pot smoker I’d been.

Skipping forward a decade or so

I’ve been sick with Lyme for a long time, lost my musical career and my marriage to this dreadful disease that has wasted my body and made it impossible for me to digest food properly and get much nutrition into my system. I’ve been in pain – sometimes screaming and crying pain – for a decade. But I’m hopeful now because raw foods are helping me balance my weight and feel better.

One day I meet a woman by a pool in Central Oregon and she begins to tell me about her dispensary in West Linn, a suburb of Portland. She mentions medical marijuana and my eyes start to glaze over as the Garfunkel & Oats song “Weed Card” starts running through my brain. I figure she’s just another Oregon stoner.

I try to relate, tell her that I have Lyme disease and know that people with Lyme are using medicinal marijuana but that I could never do that because I have been clean and sober for 28 years and can’t jeopardize my sobriety. She patiently explains that there are new strains of hemp called CBD containing virtually no THC (the psychoactive component of marijuana) and that they do not give you the “high” of THC but can help significantly with pain and low moods/anxiety associated with Lyme and other chronic illnesses. The plants are not even considered marijuana but rather industrial hemp.

I am a little bit interested but file the information away in my brain for a few years.

Then, a few months ago, someone in my little raw foods universe on Facebook posts something about ordering some full spectrum hemp oil (aka CBD) online. I can’t even remember what she said exactly but it prompted me to ask her a question about the product and she told me it was free of THC and that it was helping a lot of people with chronic illness, anxiety and depression. Because there was less than .03 percent THC there was no mind-altering effect and no unpleasant side effects. Despite my clean diet and years of various protocols I’m still experiencing some nerve and joint pain and headaches. I order the smallest bottle possible and decide to try it for five days – and then give it to a friend if it doesn’t work for me.

It arrives a week later and this is what happened:

· Day 1. I break the seal on the bottle and put two drops in my mouth and hold it under my tongue for 90 seconds, per the instructions on the label. Within a few minutes I feel a soft warmth spreading through my body, kind of like ethereal honey coating my nerves. Maybe I’m imagining it? All I know is I’m no longer afraid of this herb. Unlike other tinctures I have tried in my Lyme career this one does not seem to have a downside. I try a few more drops and still feel good, even sensing a growing mellowness and happiness.

· Day 2. I put a full half dropper of the oil under my tongue. This time nothing happens, maybe because the CBD from the day before is still in my system and I already feel pretty good. But as I drive through traffic to pick up kids I notice I am not feeling the normal level of stress. In fact, I’m not sure I’m anxious at all. The drive was actually…relaxing. What the heck is this stuff? When I get home I start researching more. Turns out that CBD is short for cannabidiol, the name of the active element in cannabis. But unlike the other active element – THC – there is no psychosis involved when it interacts with the body. (And yes, that “high” of THC is considered a type of psychosis). So CBD, it seems, is the perfect for my particular constitution, which craves serenity rather than the high. And, the article says that CBD is thought to be as effective as a benzodiazepine (think Ativan or Xanax) minus the pesky side effects. (Like addiction).

· Day 3. I try another half dropper under the tongue. The rush hour drive is uneventful, even placid. It occurs to me that it is not what CBD gives me that is valuable but rather what it takes away. Me on CBD feels a lot like me after a few weeks on a 100 percent raw food diet. (See the articles down below on more of how it works in the body to calm things down). The hemp oil seems to reduce inflammation so that pain is reduced. And it seems to take away the anxiety and the bad moods that come with an inflamed body. That night I sleep like a rock. And I noticed that my dreams are vivid and I am able to recall most of them. This is also something new.

· Day 4. The experiment is going well so I decide to increase my dosage and add another dropper in the afternoon. I continue to feel relaxed and upbeat throughout the day and realize I am no longer experiencing the Lyme-induced numbness and pain that I sometimes would get in my right arm and leg, especially if I’ve been making a lot of soap for my business or typing for too long. This is getting more interesting each day and I start to delve more deeply into my research on the impact of CBD on Lyme and degenerative illness. The short version is that CBD oil is thought to be a powerful anti-inflammatory agent that not only reduces pain but also HEALS the nervous system. And I learned there were people who were using CBD as an antibacterial to kill Lyme. And there seemed to be some science to back that up.

· Day 5. Two droppers again. Still feel good. No manic “high” that you get with some adaptogenic herbs and no herxheimer reaction that you can get with some Lyme killing herbs. Just a nice mellow feeling throughout the day. Yoga and mediation are extremely relaxing and bliss-inducing with the CBD in my system.

· The rest of the month.

· The five-day experiment is over but CBD is the gift that keeps on giving. Among other things, I no longer dread driving and I no longer have daily panic attacks while sitting in traffic. I’m more productive at work and problems seem easier to solve. Social anxiety has melted and I am getting out in the world more. CBD has even aided my recovery by making my 12-step meetings – and the ensuing personality parade therein – less overwhelming. And this sleeping-through-the-night thing is a huge bonus. That alone is a huge help in healing my body.

In a nutshell, my life has gotten better with CBD. I just feel better. I’ve returned to eating a diet that is 95-98 percent raw and I don’t experience the long-term detox headaches and aches and pains like I used to. Lyme is a brutal, painful and soul stealing disease that can seem hopeless for years on end, especially when you’ve been to doctor after doctor, naturopath after naturopath, spent tens of thousands of dollars on pills, powders and potions – all to no avail. Friends and family disappear for long stretches not able to understand what you are going through or worse, not believing you are even sick. If you have Lyme you may know very well what I am talking about.

Finding the raw foods lifestyle and gentle ways to detoxify my body of Lyme was the first big game changer for me. CBD has been the second big game changer.

As I read more about the benefits of CBD oil in terms of Lyme disease and other illnesses I knew that I had to get this product out to a wider audience and I was able to work with the owners of the brand I used – and loved so much – in order to create a line of vegan and organic Lava Love CBD products. I tried other brands and they never felt like this one. I’m still not sure why but it seems that it has something to do with the fact that it is full spectrum and the very clean way it’s extracted.

This was an effortless, fun endeavor and it felt like the Universe was giving me the green light, the big GO FOR IT. No obstacles or roadblocks. It just flowed. I’m so grateful to all of you who have written to me with questions and comments and ordered the Lava Love hemp oils off my website in the last few days since the product launched.

This particular CBD has turned out to be a perfect fit for my Lava Love line of lava-based products due to the fact that the full spectrum hemp plants that produce the oil are grown in volcanic soil and because there were a huge variety of terpenes (flavors) available from natural plants that happen to be native to Oregon.

There is so much to share about CBD’s impact on Lyme disease and other health issues that I can’t share it all here. So I’ve put a couple of links at the bottom to explain the benefits further.

But the big thing for me has been relief from years of anxiety and panic. This morning, driving during rush hour, I caught myself thinking “Driving is so relaxing I could do it all day. I really need to take a road trip!” That, my friends, is something new.

I never expected this miracle. And that is why I will spend the rest of my life spreading the good news about this incredible product. I thank God every day for raw foods and CBD oil.

If you have any questions you can email me at elisabethdunham@gmail.com or text me at 503-926-4654. You can also FOLLOW Lava Love USA on Instagram and LIKE Lava Love on Facebook. Thank you! You can also book a session with me if you need to go further in your healing!

What is a Whole Food Plant-Based Diet

Food with little or not animal-based products such as eggs, dairy products, fish and meat

Food with little or no refined foods like white flour and white sugar

Food diet that is low in fats

About Genene

Whole Food Plant-Based Diet Nutrition Advocate, Counselor and Coach

As a totally recovered Rheumatoid Arthritis patient, a life-long vegetarian, proficient cook, amateur gardener, certified health and fitness consultant and life coach I use by education and experience to help you move towards a plant based diet.

I love helping people develop a plan for tasty, balanced and budget conscious eating.

Together we create a simple guide to planning, shopping, cooking and even growing great food. With your work and my experience and encouragement you easily make the transition to eating a plant based diet.